On How Live is

First of all, 2 things:
1\ The title for this post is a (clever) spin on Macy Gray's album "On How Life Is"
2\ The original Xbox Live! sucked big time.

There. Got that off my chest.

The original Xbox Live! was a total waste of time. You paid a yearly subscription so that you can play a few games online, that were mostly laggy and just generally crap.Come the Xbox 360, and the most important and best feature of it is Live! Let me explain.The 360 Live! is a totally different beast from the original one. While the first Live! was just about finding multiplayer servers, this new one has loads more features.When you first turn your console on, your default profile loads up, and signs you in automatically to the Live! network. Any friends you have on your list that are online at the same time will have a little notification that you're online. You'll also get a little message telling you who's online. Checking your friend's list not only shows you who's there, but also what they're doing at the moment! From watching a dvd, to playing a game (sometimes including their score and status and what level they're on!), or even if they're playing a multiplayer game and whether it's joinable or not.Choose a friend, and you can page them, message them, voice chat with them privately, or invite them to your multiplayer game. You can even join their game if it's joinable.It's a very easy and intuitive system that does exactly what MS promised, put the player in the centre of the experience.

Then there's the Live! Marketplace. Here's where it really shines. The marketplace is a collection of downloads for your machine. Most are free, but some cost points (you buy these for real money). These range from themes for your dashboard, to music videos, film trailers, game trailers, and game demos (most of the game related stuff are free!). Best thing is, the trailers are in HD and come straight from the source. Game demos rock too (right now I'm downloading the demo for the new Sonic - can't wait!).Best thing is, Microsoft is making a HUGE effort at "bringing it home", in other words they're making sure Live! subscribers get the latest trailers/demos from the major gameshows quickly. In May when E3 was going on, there were daily updates for tons of things that you'd normally see on the net from a dodgy hand-held cam perspective. This year, we saw them in HD thanks to Live! Currently, TGS (Tokyo Game Show) is running and again, new demos and trailers straight from Japan to your living room. Great stuff.

And finally, there's Xbox Live! Arcade. Initially dreamed up by Microsoft as the place where the dad's will spend some time on their children's console, the Arcade is a collection of small, old and new games that are spruced up to be released on the Xbox. These games include old classics like Street Fighter 2, Frogger, Scramble, and some new "indie" games like Zuma, Geometry Wars, Uno and so on. There's a good range of coin-op classics, and most genres are catered for. These small games hammer the point that retro gaming is alive and kicking (the Arcade has sold loads since the 360's release), and shows no sign of stopping.Best thing is, yesterday in X06 Barcelona, Microsoft announced that they will be releasing the classic DOOM on Live! Arcade, including 5.1 surround and 4-player online co-op. The game was released world-wide soon after the announcement. And coming soon? the classic Sensible Soccer with original and up to date graphics. I hope it has online play - that would just be a killer.

So there you have it. I love Live! And I think anyone that has a 360 and can hook it up to the web has to try this great service. Online matches, demos, trailers, videos, movies, and loads more. Well worth the £40 a year price.

WWW.ALI-SOB.COM

Yes Ladies (are there any?) and Gentlemen, I am very proud to introduce to you:

www.ali-sob.com!

I registered this domain name very late last night in a sleepless state of mind! Mind you, it was cheap (only £20 for 2 years). Currently, visiting www.ali-sob.com just redirects you to here.
I don't intend (at least not yet) to make a brand-new website from scratch, and will continue to use Good-Delicious as my madness outlet. ali-sob.com will carry on redirecting to here.

So what's the point you say? well, a very important one: alot of my friends keep telling me "oh, we used to read your blog but we lost the address and can't remember it, it's too long" etc, etc. Now, there's nothing easier than remembering ali-sob :)

Spread the word people, and if you want update your bookmarks.

Ali "SoB" :)

Geekiest wedding cake EVER!

Yes, all of it is edible except for the Mario and Peach figuirines on top. How AWESOME? Some guy and his wife are both Nintendo fans, so they got this cake custom made for their wedding. I'm SO jealous :)

Wii European Release Date

Finally Nintendo has confirmed the solid release details and facts for their next-gen offering, The Wii.
In an exclusive press event in London, The Big N announced that the Wii will be launching in Europe on the 8th of December 2006 (14 days later than USA/JAP), and will cost £179.
The package will include the console, a remote + nunchuck attachment, and a copy of Wii Sports.
Included among the launch games will be the new Zelda (Twilight Princess), Red Steel, and Super Monkey Ball among others.

So, it's not too bad for .eu this time :) Even though it's two weeks later than the rest of the world, at least it's not 5 months (*cough* PS3 *cough*). Oh, and it's 30% the price of a PS3 :)

There have also been loads of new trailers/images/etc on the net, as is typical with the hysteria that hits the web when such things are announced. The official website is now open too.

I for one have pre-ordered my Wii from play.com, but will be checking our local game store. If they're doing a midnight launch I'll definitely pre-order from there and go queue at midnight like the geek I am :)

Oh and for those that are gonna slag the Wii off just cos it can't render 1,000,000,000,000 polygons at 1,000,000x2,000,000 resolution, I pity you. You really don't know what you're missing out on, and with such a cheap price, I think everyone should have a Wii :p

Will it do as good as the DS? maybe, maybe not. It has my full support all the way to the end, just like my trusty (and now dusty) GameCube.

Salam

The Symphonic Jean-Michel Jarre

Yesterday, as I was going to bloody work, I saw that the postman had left me a package. Inside it I found a CD I had pre-ordered ages ago.

It was the limited edition The Symphonic Jean-Michel Jarre, which is meant to be released 02/10/06! I don't know why, for some reason they posted it to me over 2 weeks early!!

The boxset has 2 CDs and a DVD (5.1 mix of the 20 tracks). All the tracks are composed by Jarre but performed by The City Of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra. There are some lovely tracks on there, including an excellent rendition of Eldorado.

So, I'm happy.

In other news, my MRCP PACES date has been given. I take the exam on Friday 20/10/06 in Barnet (north London). There are 4 of us taking the exam from Ipswich Hospital, and we've been working our arses off all evening (usually from 5pm to 7pm after work), going round seeing patients and putting ourselves in the exam situation. It sucks, but it's gotta be done.

Last time I did the exam I made a big mistake by focusing on the books, rather than on the bedside experience. This time, I'm correcting my mistakes. Also, I suffered the classical "downhill spiral" syndrome. I was very, very nervous, and convinced that I had fucked up my first station (there are 5), and as such was so flustered and melted because of it I just kept thinking about it and fucking up the remaining 4 stations.
A BIG MISTAKE that costs you the exam (and it's fee!). This time, am gonna go there as cool as ice. I hope.......

Theme park weekend

This weekend just gone, me and Kelly travelled up to the midlands to go to 2 theme parks, the huge (and biggest in UK) Alton Towers, and the smaller, but also very good, Drayton Manor.
These parks are about 150 miles from Ipswich, so we booked a hotel in the middle (Derby) and went to Alton on Saturday, and to Drayton on Sunday. I took Monday and Tuesday off, so am home now bumming :p

Anyhow, we had a great time! In Alton Towers we went on the following (in order):

Ripsaw - swings you around and hangs you upside down for a bit.

Air - now this is cool! I missed going on this back in 2003 cos there was such a massive queue (it had just openned), but man what a ride! The first roller coaster (and I think still the only one) in the world that you travel on whilst lying down! When you get on it you just sit down like normal, and you get belted in and your legs secured too. Then you're tilted so that you face the floor! You go through the ride either facing the floor or facing the sky, and it's an amazing feeling! Not too much ups and downs, as much as twists and turns and feelings of flying. Great ride!

Charlie and The Chocolate Factory - a disappointing boat ride in the factory, let down by the fact that it was just still models, not much happened.

Rita Queen Of Speed - One of those fast shooting rides that are popular these days (based on the similar Stealth ride in Thrope Park which we went to this year too, also great). The train shoots from 0-60mph in about 2.5 seconds or something stupid like that, then what follows is a succession of turns and twists. It's all over very soon but it's great while it lasts!

Spinball Whizzer - This one was great! Looks like a kid's ride, but very intense. The coaster puts you in a "pinball ball", so you ride in a circular train which spins like mad at any opportunity. Couple this with lots of ups, downs, and twists, and you have a very cool ride.

Oblivion - The all-time classic. One of the coolest rides I've ever been on to date, the idea is simple. The train takes 16 passengers (sat in 2 rows of 8) up to the top of the track, and then tilts you down slightly... you end up suspended up there looking at a big black hole in which the train will drop.... Then the stupid thing tells you "welcome to the Alton Tower's Oblivion. Whatever you do, don't look down!" and away you go! A free-fall drop lasting 6 seconds, the majority of which is in a big, dark, cold, and black hole! When you feel that you're about to die, the track swerves up and loops back to the station! Yes, it's only about 10 seconds but God is it worth it.

The next day we were off to Drayton Manor, a small and relatively unknown park, but one that hosts some of the greatest rides. They really should promote this park a bit more. We went on (in order):

Maelstrom - one of those rides that swings and turns at the same time. Difficult to explain, but is like a classic swinging ship ride, but the riders are sat in a circle that spins around at the same time. Scary and good.

The Flying Dutchman - swings that go up and spin :p

The Big Wheel.

Pandemonium - I went on that solo, as Kelly was too scared (hehe!). Basically a "ranger" style ride, riders are secured in and then spun around and hung upside down alot. More "oh my god my head is gonna pop!" rather than scary.

Apocalypse - A traditional vertical drop ride, you go on it, it goes up and up, then lets go and you drop. Problem is, this one is standing, and to add to the thrill, it tilts you forward a bit, so you're not only standing, but are forced to look at the floor as you race towards it in free-fall! Excellent ride, very very scary.

Drunken Barrels - waltzer-like ride. Stupid.

G-Force - this one is unique. A steel coaster that is quite small and short, made up of 2 loops, a cobra-loop, and some screws. What makes it very cool is that riders are only restrained from their waste (ie non of those top-down belts you get on all other coasters), and when you first start off, you drop down quickly and then the chain that takes you to the top is actually inside a loop! So as you're being pulled up you're turning upside down too! Very cool ride and made more intense cos of the waist-only restraints.

Stormforce 10 - a traditional water ride, lots of ups and downs. Very wet.

Shockwave - the last ride we went on for the day, and man oh man what a way to end the weekend! Shockwave is stil Europe's only stand-up coaster, and what an experience! Riders are secured standing up and then the coaster takes you through a dip, one loop, and 3 screws. Sounds short but it's amazingly fast, very very scary, and if it were any longer you'd puke. Best thing is, we queued for the front seats (or stands, I don't know :p), and we didn't wait long as no one wanted to go front - it's that scary. Awesome ride, well worth the visit to Drayton.

And that's it, so in one weekend I went on as many rides as I usually go on in a year or two. Wonderful stuff. Back in Ipswich now, with my MRCP book in one hand, and PCZone in the other. Wonder what I'll read next.....

Later y'all.

German Honda Jazz Ad

This German Honda ad shows you that all those hours playing tetris on the gameboy weren't a waste of your life as mum always said :)

Pretty clever, but don't forget that The Simpsons did this years ago. You chose which one you like most :)

Kung Foo Baby

This is the funniest video I've seen in a long long time... Bruce Lee eat your heart out!

The Unstoppable Nintendo

Just like the the UK pop charts, and the US movie charts, the JAP games charts are the most influential in the world.
This week's top 10 selling games from the Empire Of The Sun are:

01 NDS Final Fantasy 3 - 503.051 / NEW
02 NDS NEW Super Mario Brothers - 65.556 / 2.901.264
03 NDS Rune Factory - 42.210 / NEW
04 NDS Brain Age 2 - 41.784 / 3.073.195
05 NDS Cooking Navi - 37.326 / 384.045
06 NDS Tamagotchi 2 - 30.504 /430.933
07 NDS Mario Basketball 3on3 - 30.355
08 NDS Animal Crossing Wild World - 30.023 / 3.149.131
09 NDS Brain Age - 22.866 / 2.736.150
10 NDS English Training - 17.465

As you can see, ALL TOP 10 GAMES IN JAPAN ARE NINTENDO DS. With about 5 of them either made by, or published by The Big N themselves.

Also, on the 14th of September in US/JAP and the 15th in EU, Nintendo are holding a press conference where they will hopefully reveal all about the Wii, including prices, release dates, and that final big secret they're holding back.

This Nintendo fan thinks that the secret is going to be a bit disappointing, perhaps something along the lines of a good GPU or something I don't know. But what I also think is that the Wii will dominate. Japan will fall head over heels for it, and it's priced so cheap (nintendo promise it won't be more than $250) that even people with x360/ps3 might grab one (like yours truely).

So, could Nintendo reclaim the crown it rightly deserves but lost 10 years ago to the all-mighty Sony? Wii'll see :p

My eyes hurt

and it's all my fault

Time now 03:13. I'm staring at the screen watching a progress bar move slowly to the end. And I mean S>>L>>O>>>>W>>>>>>>L>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Y

3 and a half hours ago, some clever people released a downgrader for the PSP. It downgrades v2.71 firmware to the pirate-friendly v1.50. Since I wanna play a few games but am too cheap to buy them, I thought I'd go ahead.

Of course, the typical "don't ask for the files here cos they're illegal" business delayed me for a bit, then there was the whole "follow the instructions carefully else you'll 'brick' your PSP" business.
And then it was time to download, uncompress and copy some ISOs to the memory stick.

And then you had to install a programme called Devhook that fools the PSP into playing games from the memory stick. This is the one with the slow progress bar, takes about 30 minutes!

And the biggest delay of them all? fucking around with the settings of a programme that you've never used before in your life, only to kill it. Yes folks, it's totally my fault. I had to fuck around. I hadn't even tried a single game before I decided to take matters into my own hand.

So now, I'm re-installing devhook and punishing myself by watching the bar progress. At least I think that's what I'm watching.... my eyes hurt.